Family Fare

By Laurel Graeber

Published: December 1, 2006

Two Youths, One Quest, A Friendship Rediscovered

Michel Ocelot's latest film is about competition and conflict in the Middle East, where ethnic bigotry and mutual distrust have turned neighbors into enemies and shattered brotherly bonds. But the movie has nothing to do with Iraq or Israel or any recognizable nation. Instead it is an animated fairy tale in which a universe of misunderstanding is revealed through the lives of two boys.

The movie, ''Azur & Asmar,'' which had its American premiere last night at the New York International Children's Film Festival, follows the fortunes of Azur, blond and blue-eyed, and Asmar, dark-skinned and Arabic-speaking.

Because Asmar is the son of Azur's nursemaid, the boys are reared together and become close. But their differences eventually tear them apart, and Azur's father banishes Asmar and his mother. The boys meet again only years later. Asmar has become successful; Azur has wandered into Asmar's land, where blue eyes are considered unlucky, and he is now an outcast. Ultimately both go on a quest to free an imprisoned fairy djinn.

''It's really different than anything I've seen,'' said Eric Beckman, founder and co-director of the festival, noting that the film does not resemble ''Kirikou and the Sorceress,'' Mr. Ocelot's best-known work. ''Michel has this really painterly approach to his images, and he keeps a lot of that aesthetic but uses computers here to bring it to life.''

Mr. Ocelot, a Frenchman who spent his childhood in Guinea, wrote as well as directed ''Azur & Asmar,'' which has dialogue in French and Arabic. In the French release the Arabic has not been subtitled. Nor is it translated in the English-subtitled film at the festival. ''It was a device by Michel to show that you can understand people without language,'' Mr. Beckman said.

But language will definitely be a tool for understanding at the screenings this weekend, when Mr. Ocelot will participate in question-and-answer sessions with the audience.

''Azur & Asmar,'' tomorrow and Sunday at 11 a.m. at the IFC Center, 323 Avenue of the Americas, at West Third Street, Greenwich Village; (212) 349-0330; gkids.com. $12.

That Can Be Arranged

When Wynton Marsalis goes onstage tomorrow in an outlandish outfit -- say, a pink shirt, yellow pants and a purple tie -- he'll be making a statement. Not a fashion statement, but a statement about arrangement.

''We use a lot of analogies,'' explained Mr. Marsalis, artistic director of Jazz at Lincoln Center, describing a typical Jazz for Young People Concert. In tomorrow's program, the first such concert of the season, he also plans to ''talk about a peanut butter sandwich with anchovies.'' But while Mr. Marsalis's sartorial and culinary selections might be bad (or at least bizarre) arrangements, he and the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra will play many good musical ones. They will serve the theme: ''What Is an Arranger?''

Mr. Marsalis expects to include some of Count Basie's music and ''Limbo Jazz'' by Duke Ellington. He may also do variations on a nursery rhyme and will offer no fewer than six on ''Yankee Doodle.''

''If I'm teaching you about registers, I'll have a tuba and a soprano sax and a trombone and a trumpet,'' he said. ''Let's say I change the rhythm, and I'll make 'Yankee Doodle' into a march. Then what if I change it to swing?'' Over the phone he then scatted several lines of a swing ''Yankee Doodle.''

Those who would like to hear more of Mr. Marsalis can look forward to the family series ''Red Hot Holiday Stomp,'' Dec. 14 through 16. The program, which includes his own arrangements of holiday tunes, will center on the orchestra's relationship with Santa Claus, who asked it to play at the North Pole one year. Mr. Marsalis admitted that some of his anecdotes are a bit embellished. But, he said, ''I didn't make up the part about being invited to play.''

Children are always stretching: their muscles, their bedtimes, their limits (and sometimes your patience). But both generations can be excited about the stretching the Brooklyn Arts Exchange will invite young people to do tomorrow.

''It's all about how far you can stretch your imagination,'' said Marya Warshaw, the organization's executive director, describing the first Brooklyn's Best Family Fest. The fest is part of the 15th-anniversary celebration of the Brooklyn Arts Exchange, a cultural center in Park Slope. And since the organization is known as BAX, the day will begin with drop-in ''BAXtivities'': ''Make a Scene'' (the kind worthy of applause), with costumes and plot; ''Bend It,'' designing with bendable metal rods; ''Miraculous Metal Drawing''; ''Tattoo You''; and ''Your Family Crest,'' for which you need only creativity, not pedigree.

Toddlers are welcome: the event offers a play space and storytelling every half-hour.

The fest ends with a 4 p.m. BAXstage Music Concert with the singer Suzi Shelton, the Deedle Deedle Dees and a band with an attention-grabbing name: Dog on Fleas. ''It manages to blend bluegrass and rock,'' Ms. Warshaw said. ''I think they'll appeal to a lot of the older kids.''